double stage Assembly table

in the center of my workshop there currently is a large welding table, wich is handy for laying wood on it, but not at all to do any manipulations on it. i am going to move all the non-woodworking stuff to another corner of the “barn” in wich i have my shop.so i will need an assembly table, i currently use my workbench for that by placing a particle board on top wich is far from ideal.I want the assembly table to be not just a big flat surface that wastes enormous space when not in use, i want it to be worth the space it will take. so i plan on adding a second low-assembly table that slides inside the main one, to solve the “finding a flat floor to do the final assembly of larger furniture” problem, since a 90cm high assembly table is too high to assembly anything large on top of it.the design is based on the one from the wood whisperer with a torsion box, but i want the front and sides to be 100% real pine, filling the rear panels with mdf.i am thinking of other functions it could have, besides router table and sanding/airfilter table wich i plan to make a separate table for.any suggestions?the dimensions of the top will by 2by1 meter.stay tuned!

4 comments so far

I have these tables favorited and really like some of the built in features. I would want electrical plugs on an assembly table. One of the following benches is set up to do face frames with support rails and surface clamps this is ideal for pocket screw joinery. hope this gives you some new ideas to consider. Your design looks very useful.

-- Aaron - central California "If you haven't got the time to do it right, when will you find the time to do it over?"

thank you all for the replies, im certainly gonna add some kind of surface clamping with a straight angle. looks incredible handy when assembling stuff.what i also intend to do is turn the table into a panel clamping station, adding maybe 3 rows of dogholes across the table and a vice at each end, or a large vice that covers the entire width.gonna think it through about how to do it. i actually started today cutting out and planing all the parts for the base and panels. gonna wait with the top untill i know exactly what i want.

here are some images of the progress, it was a tough choice but i decided to go with salvaged lumber for the base. the wood comes from 40-year old pine beams (65×175mm) that we salvaged after dismounting the floor above what is now our machine hall, with my workshop in 1 corner. as it used to be a cow stable.

so the wood is free, but i have to remove these gigantic nails every few feet, i still have over 70 of these 4 meter long beams. so that makes a few tons really, but some of it is damaged by water and has blue stains.but the wood has a weird tone, it doesn’t resemble the pine that you find today, it is much darker and dull, closer to oak.

i already had my dose of silly mistakes, like cutting the door panels to size without taking in account the part that goes in the groove. so i had to make the doors smaller and redo half the joints. now the doors will be inside the structure, and not overlapping it. some of the panels have a blue-ish tint, but it’s still ok.the raised panel effect was done with the table saw, wich isn’t easy on mine because the blade tilts toward the fence. so im not even going to explain how on earth i managed to get it done.